How do I type Amharic without installing an Amharic keyboard?

Two ways, both in this page. In By family mode, click a consonant family in the grid, then click one of its vowel orders, and that syllable goes in at the caret: ሰ then its fourth order gives ሳ. Your own keyboard keeps typing as it always does, so you can mix in Latin text or digits. In Key map mode, the Latin keys the map lists become Ethiopic as you press them in the box: s gives ስ, e straight after it turns that into ሰ, and selam new:: gives ሰላም ነው።. On a touch screen, tap the key map's keys on the page instead, because a phone's own keyboard does not always report which key was pressed. When you are done, Copy puts the text on the clipboard and .txt saves it as a plain UTF-8 file.

Should I write ሀ, ሐ or ኀ? And ሰ or ሠ?

In modern Amharic those letters are pronounced alike, and so are አ and ዐ, and ጸ and ፀ. They are still different letters with different Unicode code points, and which one a word uses is a matter of spelling: some words are traditionally written with one, some with another, and usage varies. This keyboard does not guess. Every one of them has its own family in the grid and its own key in the key map (h for the ሀ family, H for ሐ, a backtick then h for ኀ; s for the ሰ family and a backtick then s for ሠ; a vowel on its own for the አ row and a backtick then a vowel for the ዐ row; S for the ጸ family and a backtick then S for ፀ), so the letter you get is always the one you chose.

What spelling does the key map use?

The vowel keys follow SERA, the System for Ethiopic Representation in ASCII: e is the first order (ä), u the second, i the third, a the fourth, E the fifth, I the sixth (ə) and o the seventh. A consonant key on its own gives the sixth order, the bare consonant, and a vowel key pressed straight after it changes that syllable; a vowel only joins the consonant typed by the key just before it, so clicking elsewhere or moving the caret ends the syllable. A vowel on its own gives the አ row, which means a word that starts with አ starts with e: emarINa gives አማርኛ, while a on its own gives ኣ. Capital W after a consonant gives its wa form (lWa ሏ, qWa ቋ, kWas ኳስ). A colon gives the word space ፡, two colons give the full stop ።, and the comma and semicolon give ፣ and ፤. Digits, the space and keys the map does not list type as they are.

Which characters are on the keyboard?

327 characters, all from the Ethiopic block, U+1200 to U+137F. That is the 34 consonant families Amharic uses, each with its seven vowel orders and the extra forms Unicode gives that family: the wa forms such as ሏ and ቧ, the labialized series of ቀ, ኀ, ከ, ኸ and ገ (ቈ ቊ ቋ ቌ ቍ and the rest), the oa forms, and ፘ, ፙ and ፚ. Then the nine Ethiopic punctuation marks, U+1360 to U+1368, and the twenty Ethiopic numerals, ፩ to ፼, U+1369 to U+137C. Not on the keys: the three families Amharic does not use (ቐ, ዸ and ጘ), the combining marks U+135D to U+135F, and the Ethiopic Supplement and Extended blocks. Text you paste from any of those is kept exactly as it is, counted, and copied with everything else.

Why does each Amharic letter count as three bytes?

Because that is what UTF-8, the encoding the web and most files use, needs for any character between U+0800 and U+FFFF, and the whole Ethiopic block sits in that range. A Latin letter or a space takes one byte. So ሰላም ነው። is 7 characters: five syllables and the full stop at three bytes each, plus one space at one byte, which makes 19 bytes. The box shows both numbers as you type, which is what you need when a form or a text message limits length in bytes rather than characters.

Can it translate English into Amharic, or finish my words?

No. This is character entry and nothing else: there is no dictionary, no translation and no predictive spelling. The key map turns key presses into letters by a fixed table, so the same keys in the same order always give the same letters, and the families are the Unicode characters themselves. Typed in By family mode, English stays English; in Key map mode the same keys are spelled out as Ethiopic letters, which is transliteration of sounds and not a translation of meaning.

Is my text stored or sent anywhere?

Nothing is uploaded: the character map and the typing all run in this tab, so there is no server to send your text to and no account to make. Your draft, the mode you were in and the family you had open are kept in this browser alone so the page opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them. The .txt download is written in the browser as plain UTF-8 with no byte-order mark, holding exactly the code points in the box.

Amharic Keyboard

Every Amharic syllable is a single Unicode character, so this keyboard is built around the families: click a consonant such as ሰ, then one of its seven vowel orders, and the syllable goes in at the caret with its code point shown beside it. If you know the Latin spellings, switch to Key map and type them into the box: s gives ስ, and a vowel key pressed straight after it changes that syllable, so selam new:: comes out as ሰላም ነው።. Letters that sound alike in modern Amharic (ሀ ሐ ኀ, ሰ ሠ, አ ዐ, ጸ ፀ) each keep a key of their own, so the page never picks a spelling for you. The Backspace button removes one whole syllable and never half of one, a search finds any character on the keys by key-map spelling, Unicode name or code point, and the box counts characters and UTF-8 bytes before you copy the text or save it as a .txt file. Nothing is uploaded and there is no account.

Your text0 characters, 0 bytes as UTF-8

Code points appear here, one per character.

Families

ሀ open: the seven orders

More ሀ forms

One sound, several letters: ሀ ሐ ኀ, ሰ ሠ, አ ዐ, ጸ ፀ. Each has its own key; pick the one you mean.

Find a character

Pick a family, then a vowel order. Or switch to Key map and type.

Family

ሀ, 7 ordersand 1 more form

Characters

UTF-8

0 bytes

Range

U+1200 to U+137F0 of 0 characters in it

By family leaves your own keyboard alone: click a family, then the vowel order, and the syllable goes in at the caret. Key map turns the Latin keys it lists into Ethiopic as you press them in the box, with SERA vowel keys: e is the first order (ä), u, i and a the second to fourth, E the fifth, I the sixth and o the seventh. A consonant key alone gives the sixth order and a vowel straight after it changes that syllable, so a word that starts with አ starts with e, as in emarINa for አማርኛ, because a on its own is ኣ. The key map listens to a physical keyboard; on a touch screen, tap its keys on the page. The Backspace button removes one whole character, a syllable together with any mark attached to it, and never half of one.

What comes out

ሀ family, orders 1 to 7click each order in turn
ሀ ሁ ሂ ሃ ሄ ህ ሆ, U+1200 to U+1206
Copy ሰላም ነው።five syllables, a space and a full stop
the same 7 code points, 19 bytes as UTF-8
Backspace after ላ in ሰላምcaret between ላ and ም
ሰም: ላ removed whole, ሰ and ም untouched

Exact about code points: Character entry, not translation or predictive spelling: every syllable, punctuation mark and numeral on the keys is one code point from the Ethiopic block, U+1200 to U+137F, and the keys cover the 34 consonant families Amharic uses; the Ethiopic Supplement and Extended blocks are not on the keys, though pasted text from them is kept. Several letters share one sound in modern Amharic (ሀ ሐ ኀ, ሰ ሠ, አ ዐ, ጸ ፀ), so the key map never picks the spelling for you. Copy and the UTF-8 download give back exactly the code points in the box. Nothing you type leaves this page, and there is no account. Your draft, the mode and the open family are kept in this browser, and the Start over button at the top of the tool page forgets them.

Common questions

How do I type Amharic without installing an Amharic keyboard?: Two ways, both in this page. In By family mode, click a consonant family in the grid, then click one of its vowel orders, and that syllable goes in at the caret: ሰ then its fourth order gives ሳ. Your own keyboard keeps typing as it always does, so you can mix in Latin text or digits. In Key map mode, the Latin keys the map lists become Ethiopic as you press them in the box: s gives ስ, e straight after it turns that into ሰ, and selam new:: gives ሰላም ነው።. On a touch screen, tap the key map's keys on the page instead, because a phone's own keyboard does not always report which key was pressed. When you are done, Copy puts the text on the clipboard and .txt saves it as a plain UTF-8 file.
Should I write ሀ, ሐ or ኀ? And ሰ or ሠ?: In modern Amharic those letters are pronounced alike, and so are አ and ዐ, and ጸ and ፀ. They are still different letters with different Unicode code points, and which one a word uses is a matter of spelling: some words are traditionally written with one, some with another, and usage varies. This keyboard does not guess. Every one of them has its own family in the grid and its own key in the key map (h for the ሀ family, H for ሐ, a backtick then h for ኀ; s for the ሰ family and a backtick then s for ሠ; a vowel on its own for the አ row and a backtick then a vowel for the ዐ row; S for the ጸ family and a backtick then S for ፀ), so the letter you get is always the one you chose.
What spelling does the key map use?: The vowel keys follow SERA, the System for Ethiopic Representation in ASCII: e is the first order (ä), u the second, i the third, a the fourth, E the fifth, I the sixth (ə) and o the seventh. A consonant key on its own gives the sixth order, the bare consonant, and a vowel key pressed straight after it changes that syllable; a vowel only joins the consonant typed by the key just before it, so clicking elsewhere or moving the caret ends the syllable. A vowel on its own gives the አ row, which means a word that starts with አ starts with e: emarINa gives አማርኛ, while a on its own gives ኣ. Capital W after a consonant gives its wa form (lWa ሏ, qWa ቋ, kWas ኳስ). A colon gives the word space ፡, two colons give the full stop ።, and the comma and semicolon give ፣ and ፤. Digits, the space and keys the map does not list type as they are.
Which characters are on the keyboard?: 327 characters, all from the Ethiopic block, U+1200 to U+137F. That is the 34 consonant families Amharic uses, each with its seven vowel orders and the extra forms Unicode gives that family: the wa forms such as ሏ and ቧ, the labialized series of ቀ, ኀ, ከ, ኸ and ገ (ቈ ቊ ቋ ቌ ቍ and the rest), the oa forms, and ፘ, ፙ and ፚ. Then the nine Ethiopic punctuation marks, U+1360 to U+1368, and the twenty Ethiopic numerals, ፩ to ፼, U+1369 to U+137C. Not on the keys: the three families Amharic does not use (ቐ, ዸ and ጘ), the combining marks U+135D to U+135F, and the Ethiopic Supplement and Extended blocks. Text you paste from any of those is kept exactly as it is, counted, and copied with everything else.
Why does each Amharic letter count as three bytes?: Because that is what UTF-8, the encoding the web and most files use, needs for any character between U+0800 and U+FFFF, and the whole Ethiopic block sits in that range. A Latin letter or a space takes one byte. So ሰላም ነው። is 7 characters: five syllables and the full stop at three bytes each, plus one space at one byte, which makes 19 bytes. The box shows both numbers as you type, which is what you need when a form or a text message limits length in bytes rather than characters.
Can it translate English into Amharic, or finish my words?: No. This is character entry and nothing else: there is no dictionary, no translation and no predictive spelling. The key map turns key presses into letters by a fixed table, so the same keys in the same order always give the same letters, and the families are the Unicode characters themselves. Typed in By family mode, English stays English; in Key map mode the same keys are spelled out as Ethiopic letters, which is transliteration of sounds and not a translation of meaning.
Is my text stored or sent anywhere?: Nothing is uploaded: the character map and the typing all run in this tab, so there is no server to send your text to and no account to make. Your draft, the mode you were in and the family you had open are kept in this browser alone so the page opens where you left it, and the Start over button at the top of the page forgets them. The .txt download is written in the browser as plain UTF-8 with no byte-order mark, holding exactly the code points in the box.

Character entry, not translation or predictive spelling: every syllable, punctuation mark and numeral on the keys is one code point from the Ethiopic block, U+1200 to U+137F, and the keys cover the 34 consonant families Amharic uses; the Ethiopic Supplement and Extended blocks are not on the keys, though pasted text from them is kept. Several letters share one sound in modern Amharic (ሀ ሐ ኀ, ሰ ሠ, አ ዐ, ጸ ፀ), so the key map never picks the spelling for you. Copy and the UTF-8 download give back exactly the code points in the box.